Dr. Tompkins is an expert on the genetic and behavioral aspects of Drosophila (fruit fly) reproductive behavior. She is also an expert in Drosophila larval color vision and assays for larval and adult visually-driven fly behaviors. From 1992-1999, she was a professor of biology at Temple University. Tompkins began her studies on fruit flies in 1977, when she joined Jeffrey Hall's laboratory at Brandeis University as a postdoctoral fellow. In 1981, she became a faculty member at Temple. During that time, she also served on the faculty at the Woods Hole Marine Biology Laboratory, where she participated in a course on neural systems and behavior from 1985-1988.
Currently, Tompkins is a branch chief at NIGMS, where she has organized several workshops and meetings for the Drosophila research community. She was organizer and chair of a workshop at the March 2001 National Drosophila Conference on funding opportunities at NIH and the National Science Foundation, and she provides regular updates to the National Drosophila Board on resource-related issues. Tompkins also serves as the Drosophila contact person for the trans-NIH Genomics Working Group and as the NIGMS contact person for genetic and genomics resources for C. elegans, Drosophila, honey bee, Neurospora, zebrafish and yeast.
Tompkins has authored 47 scientific papers and review articles in the area of fruit fly genetics and one paper on zebrafish genetic and genomic resources. At NIGMS, she has also been active in writing and editing science educational materials on genetics.
